Visa (NYSE:V) Reaches New 52-Week High After Analyst Upgrade

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday after Morgan Stanley raised their price target on the stock from $326.00 to $371.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Visa traded as high as $319.49 and last traded at $318.86, with a volume of 291625 shares. The stock had previously closed at $318.30.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price target (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $326.41.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Arjuna Capital grew its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 2.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $301.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $281.98. The stock has a market cap of $577.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.